Chaffee baseball team stays undefeated with tournament victory over St. Vincent

CHAFFEE, Mo. -- Trying to defeat the Chaffee baseball team, behind its one-two pitching punch of Cody Payne and Layton Tenkhoff, is a difficult task.

And when the Red Devils start swinging the bats like they did Saturday afternoon, it's downright daunting.

Tenkhoff pitched a four-hitter, striking out seven, and the Red Devils jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in defeating St. Vincent 12-2 in the Chaffee Round Robin Tournament

"We're feeling pretty good about ourselves, when we have Payne and Tenkhoff on the mound," Chaffee coach Brian Horrell said as his squad remained unbeaten on the season at 12-0. "Tenkhoff's gave us three or four great outings this year, and our kids really focus behind him. ... Layton threw a great game today. He really had good control, and he threw real nice."

Tenkhoff enjoyed support not only from a 10-hit attack but also from the Chaffee defense, which committed five errors in an 8-6 win over Puxico on Friday evening but was solid in Saturday's game. After retiring the first six St. Vincent batters, Tenkhoff ran into trouble in the third. A hit batter, wild pitch and a single put runners at the corners with none out. With two out, Nathan Carroll singled, plating one run, but the rally was snuffed when Chaffee third baseman Devon Yahn alertly threw to second and caught Carroll trying to advance to second on the throw to the infield for the third out.

"Just make them put it in play because we know our defense is going to get us out of this," Tenkhoff said.

St. Vincent starter Jordan Rellergert pitches to a Chaffee batter during the first inning Saturday, April 12, 2014 in the Chaffee Round Robin Tournament in Chaffee, Mo. (Fred Lynch)

Chaffee scored twice in the first inning, manufacturing its first run when Payne led off with a walk and Tenkhoff singled. Payne broke for third on a double steal and raced home when Tenkhoff was caught in a rundown between first and second. With two out, Yahn singled, went to third on an errant pick-off throw and scored on Storm Estes' infield single.

Kodi Ballard blasted a three-run home run off the top of the screen in straightaway center field in the second inning to make it 5-0. A couple infield errors led to run-scoring doubles by Yahn and Jimmy Golden that made it 8-0.

The Red Devils added run-scoring groundouts by Estes and Golden in the fourth to make it 10-1. After St. Vincent's Ethan Pecaut led off the top of the fifth with a solo home run to deep center, Chaffee put the game away with two runs in the bottom of the inning. Tenkhoff drew a bases-loaded walk to force in Charlie Montgomery, and Jordan Kinder followed with a drive to deep left that plated Ballard to make it 12-2 and invoke the mercy rule.

"It was nice to see us put it all together," Horrell said.

"[Tenkhoff] looked really good," St. Vincent coach Jose Robles said. "He can hit the spots, and it looked like he was in charge on the mound. We put the ball in play here and there, but we make a lot of mistakes running the bases, and it got to us today."

Jordan Rellergert started on the mound for St. Vincent (2-7), his first start since the season-opener when he left the game with an elbow strain. Rellergert allowed two runs on three hits in the first inning then left after feeling his elbow tighten up after his warm-up pitches in the bottom of the second.

"I asked him [before the game] how he was feeling, and he said, 'Good,'" Robles said. "After the first inning, it got really tight and started to get a little sore. You've got to take care of their arms."

St. Vincent 001 01 -- 2 4 4

Chaffee 260 02 -- 12 10 0

WP -- Layton Tenkhoff. LP -- Jordan Rellergert. HR -- Kodi Ballard (C), Ethan Pecaut (SV). 2B -- Devon Yahn (C), Jimmy Golden (C). Multiple hits -- Chaffee: Yahn 2-2, Charlie Montgomery 2-3, Ballard 2-3. Records -- St. Vincent 2-7, Chaffee 12-0.